The statements in the background of the invention are provided to assist with understanding the invention and its applications and uses, and may not constitute prior art.
Business-to-business (B2B) companies struggle to generate a predictable volume of qualified leads. The problem exists since there are many marketing activities or sources that generate leads, yet it is hard to consistently attribute the marketing activities to leads generated. Exemplary marketing activities include events, content marketing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), organic traffic, advertising, email marketing, and many others.
One way to generate a consistent number of leads of certain quality with certain prospect profile is by advertising. However, due to advertising fraud such as bots, inaccurate data in advertising channels such as in cookies from Facebook, LinkedIn, Google, and so on, and inaccurate attribute data such as wrong age or location in social media networks such as Facebook, advertising tends to generate a wide spectrum of leads in terms of quality, and a fluctuation in price per lead.
Meanwhile, it is common practice for B2B companies to utilize sales force automation (SFA), a technique of using software to automate the business tasks of sales, including order processing, contact management, information sharing, inventory monitoring and control, order tracking, customer management, sales forecast analysis, and employee performance evaluation, and even marketing. SFA is often carried out using Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software. Many CRM and SFA systems were designed in the 1990s, before social networking became ubiquitous, thus such systems often reflect the conventional way business operates where a salesperson initiates actions, instead of having the customer taking initiatives instead. Such tools merely streamline business processes, but are not capable of seizing on as many potential opportunities as possible. In the case where system data are not up-to-date, there could be lags and missed opportunities. Also, while some systems could generate lookalike clients to existing customers, they do so by relying on internal information only, and are thus limited in capturing potential clients not already in the system.
Moreover, marketers are often under the impression that all digital marketing tools necessary for growth and for generating new leads roll up under the hood of marketing automation. This misconception leaves many marketers with sophisticated tools to automate the middle of their funnel, yet without generating new leads to nurture in the first place. As a result, marketers end up buying lists of email addresses to nurture instead of generating inbound leads, which are customer initiated, and reflect a higher level of customer interest. While outbound marketing to large email lists seems like a quick fix, this is not a long-term solution for sustained success, nor does it create any fertile ground for a healthier, longer relationship between B2B companies and their future customers.
More importantly, conventional marketing and sales automation software lack the ability to advertise to potential clients in specialized or targeted ways, are unable to receive customer feedback, and are non-ideal as advertising avenues. Therefore, obtaining reliable business client leads with conventional marketing and sales automation software is often time consuming and expensive.
Therefore, in view of the aforementioned difficulties, it would be an advancement in the state of the art to provide systems and methods for generating high-quality sales leads for B2B companies.
It is against this background that the present invention was developed.